Hello there! It’s me, Jessica, reporting from the breezy Oklahoma plains. I have been stacking my refinishing to-do-list with lots of items in my personal décor compilation. I’m ready for a new spread of decor in my daily environment and am hoping to achieve without buying new! In this quick tutorial [I know, they are all quick- you’re welcome!] I will cover the basic steps to refinishing wood [of any texture, age, etc] using Country Chic’s Bees Wax Bar and Country Chic’s All In One Clay Based Paint.

For this project I used:

Wooden Frames [with an existing dull finish]

Country Chic Bees Wax Bar

Country Chic All In One Paint [Lazy Linen + Cobblestone]

Country Chic Pebble Beach Paint

Synthetic Bristle Paint Brush

Sandpaper

Paper towels

Clean Rag

Daddy Van’s Furniture Polish

To begin this super quick project, first remove photos and glass from the frames and give a quick wipe down to make sure all surfaces are free of dirt and dust. I used three varying oversized frames. The frames have different finishes, textures and existing distress. Two of these frames I had actually treated with a white wax a few months ago. This shows how well Country Chic Paint covers any surface. I did not paint a base coat on any of the frames; I wanted to highlight a bit of the existing colors with the wax bar and sanding. If you want to use a base paint color, you will prep your surface in the same manner, apply the base coat paint and then apply the wax between paint colors.

I picked a few traits on each frame that I wanted to shine through and rubbed the wax bar sparingly in that area. The wax bar acts as a barrier to the paint. The paint will completely dry, but it does not adhere to the surface below, allowing for easy sanding to expose the finish initially covered by the wax.

The wax bar is easy to apply and goes a fairly long way. I applied the wax in concentrated areas, as I wanted to have greater paint coverage on the frames versus having a drastic chippy look. I waxed over knots, raw wood areas, and exposed layers of paint I wanted to see in the end result. In the photo above, wax has been applied on the lower right area of the corner- it’s fairly hard to see which is a good sign, as you don’t want a colored wax altering the application of your paint. The wax doesn’t need to cure or dry, so once it’s applied the piece is ready for painting.

Country Chic All In One Paint covers any surface like a dream [I’m always saying this about ALL of their products]. The waxed areas do not disturb the smoothness of the paint application [note- I applied the wax as evenly as possible]. For each frame I only needed one even paint layer. This paint dries pretty quickly; I wanted a hard dry so sanding would be smooth and allow the wax to do it’s job without sanding off rolls of drying paint- so I let the frames dry for about 2 hours. Two hours of dry time is still a mere eye-blink compared to many other paint lines that need to dry an entire day.

The next step in the process is sanding. Now, this paint sands very well. It’s like magic fairy dust coming off of your piece and creates the smoothest baby-bottom soft surface. With that in mind, make sure you sand outside because you will make quite the paint particle cloud indoors [it’s eco friendly]. I sanded until I was satisfied with the amount of existing finish that was exposed. Because I was sanding [if I had used a wet distress technique the finish would have been very different], the distress was much more subtle, and so easy to achieve with the use of the wax. Had I attempted this finish without using the wax bar, I would have needed a lot more elbow grease.

Lastly, I buffed an even coat of Daddy Van’s Furniture Polish to add a slight luster to the frames, without losing the effect of chalk paint. Daddy Van’s soaks right in, smells amazing, does not leave a colored residue and dries with a near matte finish. It’s the perfect finishing wax. Want to try some out? Email me and I can get you hooked up at a discounted price!

I am so pleased with the results and really like how the different wood styles compliment each other. By using some of Country Chic’s coordinating paint tones I was able to achieve a wonderful combination that can work well together on a gallery wall, or individually. This technique is very easy and can be used on any surface. Now, get to refinishing!

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Who is Loveleigh?

Hello! Jessica Skinner here! Thank you for stopping by the Loveleigh blog + website. In a few words, I am- twin mom, fireman wife, lover of the outdoors, surviving off of chocolate and DIY projects, trying to sweat as often as possible and am a total [health nut] foodie [gluten free since 2006], I love to host workshops and am a family woman. Click the envelope above and let's chat!